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nAcciyAr tirumozhi X - kArkkODal pUkkAL 2

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Kalyani Krishnamachari • October 22, 1999 


                        SrI:
      SrI ANDAL samEta SrI rangamannAr tiruvaDigaLE
SaraNam

             nAcciyAr tirumozhi X - kArkkODal pUkkAL
        pASuram 10.2 (tenth tirumozhi - pAsuram 2 mEl
tOnRIp pUkkAL))

           emperumAnuDaiya jyotiyil ennaic
cErppIrgaLA?

mEl tOnRIp pUkkAL!  mel ulaga`ngaLin mIdu pOi
 mEl tOnRum SOdi vEda mudalvar valankaiyin
mEl tOnRum Azhiyin ve`njuDar pOlac cuDAdu emmai
 mARROlaip paTTavar kUTTattu vaittuk koLkiRRirE!

A. Meaning from SrImAn SaDagOpan's tamizh treatise:

godai turns her eyes towards the sky trying to avoid
the
kAndaL flowers which remind her of emperumAn.  She
sees
some other kANdaL flowers blossomed on top of the tall
trees. The dark color of these flowers again reminds
her
of kaNNan's hue and godai feels all burned up.  She
appeals
to them not to burn her as cakkarattAzhvAn (who is in
the
right hand of paramapada nAthan sung in the veda-s as
the Prime Deity) burns up His enemies, but instead to
cool her down by taking her to the crowd of aDiyArgaL
(followers) of "em param SOdi gOvindan".

Additional thoughts: Godai's looking up after being
reminded by the kAndaL flowers is suggestive of her
looking up in the sky for the garuDa vAhanan to
be coming to her.

B. Additional thoughts (from SrI PVP ):

mEl tOnRip pUkkAL: Because godai could not stand to
bear
the tApam caused by the kAndaL flowers, she turns her
eyes
away from them and looks up.   She is not spared the
pain
by this action, since she sees the mEl tOnRip pUkkaL,
which are the same family as the kAndaL flowers, but
grow
on tops of the trees.   It looked like the mEl tOnRip
pUkkaL
took a different name and grew on top of the trees
just
to finish godai off if she escaped the kAndaL flowers
at the ground level.  Out of the four varieties of
life forms, namely, deva-s, manushya-s, animals and
plants, godai feels that these flowers which belong to
the plant form have been explicitly created by Him for
her destruction.
                                                      

mEl tOnRum Sodi:  This is the reference to
paramapadam.
emperumAn's abode SrI vaikunTham is described in
mahAbhArata as having a brightness far exceeding that
of
the sun and the moon, and a blissful place from which
those who are fortunate enough to go will never have
to return back to samsAra,
   tatra gatvA punarnemam lokamAyanti bhArataeva ||
(AraNya. 136-18).

veda mudalvar:  He who is praised and revealed by the
veda-s as the Prime Deity.   Sri kRshNasvAmi aiye`ngAr
gives several quotes from paripADal declaring that
bhagavAn
is the veda mudalvar; just to give few examples:
"tolliyal pulava", "kAla mudalvanai", munnai marabin
mudumozhi mudalva" etc.

Azhiyin ve`njuDar:  Having described the greatness of
paramapadam and then the greatness of veda mudalvan
whose
abode is paramapadam, now godai comes to the greatness
of
the Azhi that is in His right hand.  We know the Sun
to be extremely bright.  The tEjas of indra and other
devas is more than that of the Sun; brahma's tejas is
greater than that of the devas; much brighter than
that will
be tejas of mUla prakr*ti which is the cause of their
bodies; the brightness of paramapadam will make this
mUla
prakRti look like darkness by comparison. The tEjas of
emperumAn's divyamangaLa vighraham is what gives the
brightness to paramapadam.  SrI PVP's anubhavam is
that
the tejas of the tiruvAzhi that He is carrying in His
right hand is higher than that of emperumAn Himself -
hence ve`njuDar Azhi. SuDar Azhi.

Azhiyin ve`njuDar pOlac cuDAdu - not scorching her
like the tiruvAzhi in His right hand.   Could ANDAL
have not said "Don't scorch me like the bright hot
Sun" which we can all directly feel and see, and
instead
why is she using His tirvAzhi which we can only
imagine?  SrI PVP gives a couple of reasons.  One is
that for godai, objects belonging to His nitya vibhUti
are
as visible as are the objects in this world, and so
she can give the analogy of His tiruvAzhi just as
easily
as she can give the Sun as the example.  In one sense,
for godai the nitya vibhUti is even closer since she
can
enjoy it to her heart's content, whereas she is unable
to reach Him in this world.  To her, the anubhavam of
His
nitya vibhUti is like a downward slope which she can
easily maneuver whereas the anubhavam of Him in this  

world is like an uphill slope.  SrI PVP notes that
nammAzhvAr also first talks about emperumAn as
"amarargaL
adipati" in the first pASuram of tiruvAimozhi, and
then only in the third pASuram he talks about
bhagavAn's leelA vibhUti.

SuDAdu emmai: tiruvAzhiAzhvAn will punish only those
who do not have any love for emperumAn; he will
bless those who are His devotees ("aruLAr
tiruccakkaram"
tiruviruttam 33 and "aruLAzhi" - tiruvAimozhi 1-4-6).
"But, you, mel tOnri pukkAL, are destroying me even
though I am His devotee".

mARROlai paTTavar kUTTattu: The term mARROlaip
paTTavar is
given two different interpretations.  One is that this
term refers to those who are seeking only AtmAnubhavam
and not bhagavad anubhavam.  In this interpretation,
the reference is to those who have been "designated"
to not have bhagavad anubhavam.  SrI tirumalai nambi's
interpretation is as follows: "ANDAL is beginning to
feel that she is undergoing this kind of suffering
only because she is seeking bhagavad anubhavam; so now
she
feels she better join those who have been designated
to not
have bhagavad anubhavam, and so will not seek bhagavad
anubhavam any more, but instead seek to join the crowd
of the kevala-s, who only seek AtmAnubhavam, and not
the bhagavad kaimkarya anubhavam".  This is a stage
that is
somewhat intermediate between the state of the
acetana-s
and the parama cetana.

SrI embAr gives a different interpretation here: Since
the word 'kUTTam" or gathering is used, and kevala-s
are those who seek AtmAnubhavam by intense meditation
in
isolation, we should not take it to refer to the
kEvala-s.    kevalar try to indulge in their own AtmAs
individually, not in a crowd; so, here it should be
taken to mean mukta-s.  (like tiruvAimozhi 2-3-10 says
"aDiyArgaL kuzhAngaL").  Thus here the term "mARROlaip
paTTavar" refers to those who have been "designated"
to
be relieved from the bondage of samsAra and instead be
in the crowd of mukta-s.

kurattAzhvAn's disciple SrI AppAn gives yet another
explanation; which is obviously a reflection of
kUrattAzhvAn himself.  His explanation is:
"sarvEsvaran
has sent you to destroy me; there are some whom He
chooses
to destroy Himself.  Please take me away from the
crowd
who are ordained to be destroyed by you and put me in
the crowd who are ordained to be destroyed directly by
Himself.
If He asks you why you brought me in that crowd, tell
Him that the Order document got mixed up (mARROlai).
Even if
He will destroy me anyway, at least I would get the
satisfaction of seeing Him in person". [what a great
anubhavam kUrattAzhvAn and AppAn had!].

Another anubhavam is that ANDAL feels so tortured by
these mEl tOnRip pUkkaL that she thinks it can only
be less painful for her even if she is put in the
crowd
of those who are considered by Him to be His enemies.

SrI PBA gives yet another anubhavam:  Instead of
reading
the text as "mARROlaipaTTavar kUTTattu", we can read
it as
"maRROLaip paTTu, avar kUTTattu".  Sometimes, even
though
yama specifically writes the order to his dhUta-s to
get
a person X, they may by mistake, get a different
person Y.
ANDAL is telling these flowers that even though these
flowers have been given the order to torture ANDAL,
they
can make a mistake (mARROlaip paTTu - Olai mARRap
paTTu),
and instead, take Him to the crowd of His devotees
(avar kUTTattu).

C. Additional thoughts from SrI uttamUr
vIrarAghavAcAriyAr
(denoted by SrI UV from now on):

In the last pASuram, we had the reference to kArkkODal
pOOkkAL.  KAr also means "cool".  These flowers also
resembled bhagavAn's tirumeni, and thus represent
perumAL.  In the current pASuram, we have the
reference to
the mEl tOnRip pUkkAL, which are hot like the tiru
Azhi,
who is a mahA bhAgavta.  In our sampradAyam, a
bhAgavata
is worthy of even higher respect than perumAL.  The
reference to :mEl tOnRip pUkkAL can be understood in
this
context as well.

The term jyoti occurs in the vedas to describe parama
padam - yada kah paro divo jyotir dIpyate viSvatah
pRshTheshu anUttameshu lokeshu.  The use of the word
jyoti must have reminded ANDAL of the veda vAkyam, and
so
she immediately refers to bhagavAn as veda mudalvan.

emmai:  The use of the plural here refers to ANDAL's
request  to include her tozhi-s also in the anukUlar
kUTTam along with her.

Regarding the different explanations for the phrase
"mARROlaip paTTavar kUTTattu", SrI UV points out that
this is an instance which illustrates that pirATTi's
SrI sUkti has a lot of inner meanings.  Our acAryAs
have considered that these need to be deeply
researched in
order to have the full anubhavam of these SrI sUkti-s.
The same is true of all of our AzhvArs' SrI sUkti-s.

In the first pASuram, the kAndaL flowers appeared to
be decorated for war on her.  In the second pASuram,
the kAndaL flowers seem to be set to torture her like
the Azhi.  When someone is set for a war with someone
else, the only way they will stop their onslaught is
if
the opponent surrenders.  Here ANDAL seems to be
surrendering to them so that they will all be on
her side - she is going to befriend everything which
has
an aspect of bhagavAn in them.

[Abbreviations: SrI PVP=Sri periyavAccAn piLLai;
SrI PBA=SrI prativAti bhayankaram aNNangarAcAriyAr; 
SrI UV=SrI uttamUr vIrarAghavAcAriyAr]

sarvam SrIman nArAyaNAyEti samarpayAmi.

adiyEn,
kalyANi kRshNamAcAri      
                                                      
   
                                                      
   

                                                      
       

                                                  
                                                      
                 

                                    


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